Gary Neville blames two Man United players for Erik ten Hag issue highlighted by Jamie Carragher

Gary Neville believes two Manchester United players are to blame for Erik ten Hag’s midfield issues that Jamie Carragher highlighted on Monday Night Football.

Carragher, 46, focused on United’s disjointed press before West Ham’s 4-2 win over Brentford at the start of the week.

The analysis section was brought up to Ten Hag during his pre-match press conference on Tuesday afternoon, with the manager labelled the former Liverpool defender’s piece as “subjective”.

Read More: Manchester United suffer double injury blow after Nottingham Forest FA Cup win

Gary Neville brought up the situation on the latest podcast of Stick to Football and Carragher further explained his stance, referring to a clip he used when Kobbie Mainoo was split between pressing or trying to cover the midfield space behind him.

“I used a clip from the kick-off. Nothing else going on in the game; you must know exactly what you need to do,” Carragher said.

“That’s why I used the clip, because the young lad in midfield, it looked like he didn’t really know… this was like 20 seconds into the game.”

This is an issue that many United supporters have also highlighted this season, with the midfield being the major weakness – not in terms of personnel, but rather their setup.

Whilst Ten Hag is blamed for this, Neville believes that it is the duty of the two centre-backs to pass on the right information to their midfielders so that they are not as stretched as usual.

“I do blame centre-backs for that,” Neville responded. “I think if there’s a player there, Kobbie’s there and there’s a player in front, I’d expect a defender there to say ‘Kobbie, drop back one’ or ‘go [forward]’ and I’m going in.

“I’d always say to the player in front of me to screen or go and press, you’d always give them information.”